If I were to create new titles for my Northern Ontario adventures last year, Part One would be renamed “Magical Friendship and Raw Vegan Dessert Heaven” and Part Two would be called “Flights of Fancy and Carob Cashew Marvellous Mousse”.

Today’s post, Part Three, would be known simply as “The One Where Our Faces Show Up A Lot”.

Do you want to know the signs of true friendship in the North? They include:

Being driven into town every day by your non-coffee-drinking friend so that you can buy a cup of coffee from the lovely local cafe;

Having your friend come up with reasons why she “needs” to go into town every day so that you never have to actually ask for said coffee run; it simply happens;

Walking through the snow while laughing over Elvis sightings and then gasping with glee because MINIATURE HORSE-PONY-CREATURE-THING-JOY-PATTING-PATTING;

Not being made fun of when you have to use the absolute lightest weights during an impromptu workout together over a fun girly movie;

Making raw vegan sushi in the kitchen one night after exhilarating in the joy of a yoga class led by Heathy (who is, no word of a lie, the best yoga instructor I’ve ever had… why are you so far away, Heathy? Why?);

Giggling wildly upon later discovering that, while you were smiling serenely at the camera, Heathy was wielding a knife like a gorgeous fiend behind you;

Finding someone who will not only be silly with you in the kitchen, but will respond to your pleas not to roll the sushi “because I’m not any good at it!” by handing you the nori and stating that “you only learn by doing”, thus further reinforcing her soulsister/spirit-guide status;

(Mmm, delicious sushi and delicious Ontario white wine…)

Feeling like you’ve known each other for longer than you can remember, and wishing you lived close enough to have movie-dessert-wine nights every week;

But, because you currently don’t live close enough for that, being given a plate of your favourite of Heathy’s pumpkin treats (the raw vegan pumpkin pie) as well as the one you hadn’t yet tasted (the traditional baked, but still gluten-free and dairy-free, pumpkin pie) to eat on the four hour Greyhound bus back to Thunder Bay, en route to Toronto; and

Knowing that even if it’s months before you see each other again, the memories are strong enough to keep your friendship shimmering like gossamer.

Do you ever have those moments when something inside your mind clicks into place, and the world suddenly makes sense in a way it didn’t before? Maybe you’re in university, and you’ve been struggling to tie together the theories of Bourdieu, Veblen, and Baudrillard. Then, at 1am over a bowl of cereal, you unwind the […]

Last week was the week that winter broke me. In truth, I’m pretty chuffed that I lasted four months before my soul crumpled under the figurative and literal weight of snow and unrelenting cold. After all, I’ve always been a summer girl at heart, and I can’t even begin to tell you how many people […]

To read the first two installments of my Northern Ontario adventure, click here and here. My first day with Heather in her winter wonderland home was marked by naught but joy, deliciousness, laughter, secret-sharing, and the forging of soulsister-bonds. I awoke the next morning wondering if our second day could possibly be as magical as […]

Oh, Trader Joe’s. You are the only grocery store I have ever patronised that employs a bouncer at the door, and for this you will always have a strange (and amused) place in my heart. Did I ever tell you that story, readers o’ mine? When I was gadding about with Laura in New York […]

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About

Hannah. Writer, editor, firm believer in socks, gin, laughter, buttered toast, cheesecake, and semicolons. Currently back in Canberra after two years living in Canada; heart tingling to see what happens next.